How Your Body Reacts to Going Vegan

Deciding to live a vegan lifestyle can be difficult and often does unexpected things to your body. This is a major lifestyle change and a physiological one that could have adverse effects. A dramatic shift in eating habits can and will have biological changes, but don’t worry, they are all natural.

A plant-based-diet can obviously benefit your body as well as damage it. Lets find out what exactly happens to your body when you switch to a vegan diet. These changes are most likely beneficial to your overall health, so accept them.

Lowers Heart Disease risk

Vegetarian and vegan diets have been proven to lower heart disease risk by 24 percent. That’s pretty sweet and the kind of change you should expect from an eating switch like this. Animal products and meats take much longer to digest and this process causes inflammation in arteries. This increased inflammation is causing many heart issues of meat eaters including narrowing coronary arteries. The vegan diet seriously lowers heart risk, so these side effects seem good so far.

Weight Loss

A great byproduct of switching to a vegan diet is unintended weight loss. By cutting out the added calories of meat, dairy and eggs, vegans lose weight in the first month of their new diet. This weight loss is inevitable and nothing to worry about. Its simple math at this point, you have less calories coming in, so you need to burn less to lose weight. So if you want to lose a quick 10 pounds, adopt a vegan lifestyle, even if it’s only for a month.

Bloating

By cutting out all the meat and animal products from your diet; you are leaving tons of digestive enzymes with nothing to do. This will leave a chemical imbalance in your stomach, often causing gas and bloating. This will all be handled in due time, as your body is an incredible machine that self checks itself. Your body will systematically get rid of any gas the same way it always has, farts or burps… you decide. Just remember that this extra gas is normal during a major transition like this one; so don’t be alarmed if a loud, stinky fart wakes you up.

Muscles Have to Adjust

Less protein will make your muscles yearn and possibly feel weak. Meat and animal products are high in protein and as you may know, protein is the building blocks of your muscles. Of course there are plenty of plant-based proteins, but your body absorbs these much slower than animal proteins. This time difference may make you feel like you are jetlagged when in fact you are just low on protein.

Tastes Will Change

Taste buds are oddly regulated by zinc, which is news to me. Apparently, red meat is the best source of zinc and without it, your taste buds may begin to change. Don’t be alarmed if some of your favorite foods taste weird during your transition. Try to take some zinc pills to help your taste buds adjust.

Enjoy your new healthy lifestyle and hopefully your transition to Veganism is pleasant.